


To Soften An Iron Heart

by crazyinfj, Eylle9



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dad!Tony, F/M, Fluff, Ironman 1 compliant, M/M, Pops!Rhodey, The Avengers (2012) Compliant, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, avengers as a family, canon compliant when we want it to be, irondad and spiderson-squared?, ironfam through the years, minimal angst, plus peter, raising peter, regarding everything else-not compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 18,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24439291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazyinfj/pseuds/crazyinfj, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eylle9/pseuds/Eylle9
Summary: The journey to parenthood isn't easy, but it was completely worth it. Tony couldn't imagine it being any more fulfilling, after all, he was living his life with his two favorite people on earth-Peter and Rhodey. What more could he ask for?Written for the Rhodey Appreciation Week 2020
Relationships: Cassie Lang/Peter Parker, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Jefferson Davis/Jeanette Rhodes, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 68
Collections: Rhodey_apprecationweek2020/05





	1. Adoption

There had been many times Tony Stark had realized how much he loved his husband Rhodey. It was crazy to think that their whirlwind of a love story had begun in a MIT dorm room and was now the catalyst of their plans to adopt. 

Something stirred in Tony’s heart when Rhodey picked up Peter, the small orphaned baby whose life had already been so traumatic. When he watched as his husband gingerly picked Peter, who was sucking a red pacifier, and smiled at the baby as if the baby held all the magic in the world. Tony didn’t believe in magic, but this moment held a feeling so raw that Tony couldn’t describe it any other way. They both knew. Peter was meant to join their family. 

“Peter’s been through a lot, but I’m confident you guys will be the best fathers a son could ask for.” The social worker, Marie, told them on her last visit, “As soon as these papers are signed and filed, Peter will officially be part of your family.”

Peter had been part of their family since the beginning, since the moment they had laid eyes on the boy, just now it was official. 

-

Needless to say, fatherhood was not the easiest path for Tony and Rhodey. Sure, they had been around babies, but there was a huge difference between holding a baby and that baby being your child. 

That meant that during the adoption process Rhodey and Tony took private parenting classes, advice from Mama Rhodes and Jeanette Davis (who apparently didn’t have her hopes high for them) and took care of Rhodey’s nephew, Miles. 

Peter was a relatively easy child, he wasn’t fussy, slept more than he was awake, and couldn’t walk yet so he wasn’t a holy terror (Jeanette warned them that it was coming, and she would know, Miles was two years old and walking). 

But that didn’t make learning to be a parent easy. They discovered after a panicked call to Mama Rhodes that Peter had gotten diaper rash, they learned that just because Peter couldn’t walk didn’t mean that he couldn’t manage to get ahold of whatever caught his eye, and the worst part-babies don’t sleep well through the night. 

Rhodey however, took everything with a stride Tony had yet to manage in his personal life. He was good natured about changing the most smelly of diapers and came up with easier ways to bathe a baby (bringing the baby into the shower when you had an AI controlling water temperature was a lot easier than making a baby bath). 

“Did you feed Peter yet?” 

“I thought you did!” 

“Am I overfeeding our child?” 

Tony was the one most with Peter, as the liaison job Rhodey currently held was still a demanding job despite the obvious perks. Rhodey never failed to rant about how he was doing more than his fair share in the job, and Tony by this point had heard it all and rolled his eyes. 

Despite this, Rhodey always put his role as a parent first and foremost, and whenever he was home, it was about Tony and Peter. Not exceptions. Tony always enjoyed peaking in when Rhodey was home to see the two loves of his life smiling at each other. 

One rare day Rhodey was home and Tony was the one with the stupid meetings and irrational people. To say the least it put Tony in a bitter mood that he couldn’t be home with them, sitting in their bedroom and watching Peter roll around the floor. So when he finally got home, he was huffy and aggravated. 

“C’mon Pete, we gotta finish this for Daddy!” Rhodey’s voice drifted from the kitchen to the entry, where Tony was standing. In anticipation for whatever this was, Tony loosened his tie and took off his suit jacket to go greet his two favorite boys. 

When he got the the kitchen, he was greeted by the smell of pizza and his two boys in matching aprons. Peter’s fist was in his mouth, and Rhodey was expertly maneuvering around the kitchen with an eight month baby in his arms. 

“We made pizza.” 

“So I see.” Tony's eyes sparkled with mirth. “And what here did Petey do to help?”

“He kept me company.” Rhodey bounced Peter up a little more with his arm. “Didn’t you little guy?” 

Peter just kept gnawing at his fist, his eyes going from Rhodey to Tony. He seemed happy enough, and his big innocent eyes seemed to say, ‘what, me?’

“Okay Pete, here’s your grub.” Rhodey opened a can of mashed peas and grabbed a spoon. “You ready little guy?” 

Tony watched with admiration and a sense of pride as Rhodey made an obnoxiously accurate helicopter sound and “flew” the spoon into Peter’s mouth. 

“Are you gonna eat Tones?” Rhodey’s concerned voice broke Tony of his trance. Oh yeah, pizza. Pizza, a calm night at home with his boys, and a thousand years ahead of them. What more could Tony ever want?


	2. First Steps

Peter was a clumsy child. He could barely crawl without hitting something, going into a wall, or attempting to stand to just topple over on the floor. That’s why the penthouse floor were all covered with lush, fluffy carpets. They had learned that clumsy children and hardwood floors didn’t go together. 

Their doctor had told them to be ready for Peter to start walking, after all, he was 14 months old and already meeting the expected milestones. Six months. Oh how the time flew by. 

“Let’s go for a walk.” Rhodey said, out of the blue. Tony was confused, but Rhodey was determined. And usually, Rhodey ended up winning, “You coming?” 

— 

Strapped to his chest, Peter snuggled into Rhodey’s chest as Tony and Rhodey stood hand in hand. “I found this trail a week ago, and I wanted you to see the view.”

“Since when did you become the domesticated dad?” Tony teased. Rhodey just smiled. 

“Are you upset that you aren’t on base as much?” Tony had to ask, there was always that tiny bit of fear that sounded a lot like his dad, that convinced him that Rhodey was going to pack his bags and leave one of the days. 

“No, I’ve got everything I could ever want right here.”

Tony had seen Rhodey with many different roles. He was a military man, a scientist, an engineer, a son, a husband, but for all the years Tony has been by Rhodey’s side, he had never seen him this happy. 

They reached the top of the peak. In reality, the hike was less than a mile, but the small family had strolled all along the trail, in no hurry whatsoever. 

“Okay, Pete, I’m gonna let you down, got it bud?” 

Peter just gave Rhodey a wide eyed look, and let himself be placed on the cool grass. Moments later, Tony picked him up by the tummy to look at the view. “See that? Isn’t that pretty?”

Soon later, Tony got the sense that Peter wanted to be put down, so Tony sat criss-cross applesauce to keep an eye on Peter as he explored the new ground around him. To Tony’s displeasure, the looming threat of press coverage caused them to stay at home most of the time, so Peter didn’t get unlimited access to the great outdoors. On the other hand, being inside meant that Tony wasn’t getting eaten alive by hungry mosquitoes. So slapping one of the pesky bugs almost caused him to miss out on one of the most important moments of Peter’s life. His first steps. 

Tony absentmindedly tugged at Rhodey shirt and pointed at Peter, would was waddling around in the grass, trying to find the frog that had hopped away just a moment ago. 

“Jarvis, did you get that on camera?” Rhodey finally was able to manage. 

“Every moment.” Jarvis’ smooth voice responded. 

“Hey Petey, come to Pops!” Rhodey called to Peter, who turned around and began to waddle to Rhodey. “Come on, you got this Pete.” Peter began to smile as he waddled back over to Tony and Rhodey, who were grinning with unbridled delight. 

Tony watched with the affection only a father could have as Peter toppled onto Rhodey’s lap and Rhodey scooped him up into his trademarked bear hugs. 

“You little bugger! You just walked!” Rhodey smiled down at the boy who echoed his pop’s own facial expression, with his toothy grin and bright eyes. 


	3. Preschool

Tony started his morning by hearing Rhodey and Peter’s giggling. 

“Daddy, wake up!” Tony could hear Peter's voice. He was excited, and he had only a moment to prepare himself for his son jumping on top of his sleeping body. 

“Just 5 more minutes…” Tony mumbled, as Peter tried to yank his covers off.

“Tony, your coffee is ready and there’s breakfast we should prepare. It’s Peter’s first day at preschool.” Tony remembered at that moment which day it was-the day Peter started growing up. Where did the time go?

“Okay, okay. I’m up.” Tony groaned as he sat up, his body protesting as Peter jumped on his back, wanting to be carried to the kitchen.

\--

Before starting to prepare the breakfast Tony guzzled his coffee because absolutely no one needed to deal with a Tony who hadn’t drank his coffee yet.They had promised the government they wouldn’t traumatize Peter. 

"So Pete, what do you want to eat?" Rhodey asked the boy who was bouncing excitedly on his bare toes. They suspected that Peter had ADHD, because he could never sit still and constantly needed a release. Luckly, Tony himself had severe ADHD, so Rhodey and Tony were able to adjust their lifestyle to most help Peter manage his symptoms. 

"Pancakes!" Peter shouted.

"Okay Pete." Rhodey said while laughing and grabbing a spatula. 

After Tony and Rhodey prepared breakfast, they all sat down and started eating. Well, more correctly, Rhodey was shoveling in his food, Tony was using his hands instead of his fork, and Peter was drenching every bite in syrup. 

After a few minutes of silence, Tony found Rhodey worriedly looking at Peter. "What happened Pete?" Tony studied Peter’s face. He almost looked...sad?

Not lifting his head, Peter whispered, "Do I have to go?" 

"I thought you were excited to go to school." Tony was surprised, and went over to where Peter was sitting. Carefully, he placed him on his lap. 

“What’s wrong Peter?” Rhodey nudged softly, down on his knees so he was eye level with the boy. 

"I don't want to leave you." Peter refused to look at Rhodey’s face and his small arm was shaking while holding Tony’s leg. 

"But Pete, your dad and I have to work."

"Can't I just stay at home?"

"Not alone." Tony said firmly. 

"Then can I stay at home with Aunt Pepper or Uncle Happy?" Peter asked hopefully.

"No, they also have to work and you get to go to Pre-k and meet new friends." 

Peter began crying. "I don't want friends, I want you!” His voice became quiet and he sniffled. “Please don't leave me there." 

"Oh, Pete." Tony said.

"Look at me." Rhodey’s voice was gentle but firm, and Peter wiped his eyes to look at Rhodey, his eyes still glassy with tears. 

"We won't leave you, okay? It is just for the day. We will be right there to pick you up after school. And don't you want to play with new friends? We’re not always able to play with you but you can play with your friends."

"Really?" Peter’s face held a trace of hope and Rhodey grinned. 

"Really. And when you come from school, you can tell us what you did and then we all can play whatever you want. How does that sound?” 

"Yes! Can Aunt Pep and Uncle Happy come too?"

"We will ask them." Rhodey said.

"Yay!" Peter jumped off Tony’s lap and hugged Rhodey by the neck. “Yay!”

"You don't want to be late for your first day, right Pete?" Tony asked. Peter nodded, his face very serious. 

"Then let's go. We’re gonna drop you off to school." Peter ran to the living room where his R2-D2 backpack was already packed and ready. They had gone to the store for supplies and the moment that Peter had seen the bag, Tony could tell that he wanted it. Of course, in full Peter fashion, he didn’t say anything and instead just kept glancing back to the shelf it was on.

“Pete, do you want that bag?” Tony had asked, and Peter nodded quickly before shaking his head. 

“I don’t need a bag.” 

“Peter, every boy needs a bag for his first day at school. And look at this!” Rhodey immediately was able to see what was happening and played along. “DUM-E is going to be thrilled that you have a bag of his brother!”

Tony was thinking of just how lucky he was while driving the car. He had the cutest son and the best husband in the world, and right now, they were sitting in the back of the car cuddling.

"We’re here." Tony said. Together, they got out of the car and went inside.

\--

Tony held Peter’s left hand as Rhodey held Peter’s right hand. The room was buzzing with excitement, and Peter looked overwhelmed and buried his face in Rhodey’s leg. 

“I don’t like it!” Peter began to cry and Rhodey pried him off of his leg to pick him up. 

“How about we go meet your teacher?” 

Tony brushed Peter’s tears off his face as Rhodey led them over to one of the three adults in the room.

“Hello, this is our son Peter.” Rhodey greeted the girl who didn’t look a day over twenty five. 

“Hi Peter! I’m Ms. Ellie, I’m one of your teachers, can I show you where to hang your backpack?” 

The girl’s voice was a tad annoying to Tony’s ears but she seemed to hold Peter’s attention, so Tony didn’t say anything and followed as Rhodey carried Peter to the wall of hooks. 

“Is that R2D2? I love Star Wars!” Ms. Ellie smiled happy and Peter gave her a small smile. 

“My favorite character is Luke Skywalker.” Peter said happily, “And then Obi-Wan/Ben Kenobi because he reminds me of Daddy.” Peter told her. The girl seemed surprised by his ability to articulate, and he began to talk her ear off about how he was gonna grow up and go to space to see where they lived. Tony figured this was a good time to make their exit. 

"See you Pete!" 

"Bye!" Peter ran up to them and gave them both a hug and a kiss before he ran off to Ms. Ellie again to talk about how he loved Chewie and had a life sized stuffie of him.

\--

When the time came, Rhodey, Tony, Pepper and Happy were waiting for Peter outside on the curb. When the class finally emerged, Peter quickly spotted them. 

"Dad, Pops, Aunt Pepper, Uncle Happy!" Peter shouted happily while running to them. His hands were outspread and ready to hug them.

"Hey Pete, don't run, be careful!" Pepper shouted back.

When Peter came up to them, he hugged all of them one by one, giving each one a kiss on the cheek. Happy could deny it all he wanted, but Tony knew that the man secretly loved every Peter kiss he got. 

"How was school?" Tony asked, and Peter pulled out a piece of paper. 

"It was great! I learned new things, we played a lot of games, but I didn’t really like duck duck goose. This is my art project. It’s me, you, Pops, Pepper, and Happy!”

“Hmm,” Tony took the paper and showed it to Rhodey. “I think this qualifies for a fridge magnet, what do you think Pops?”

“Look at that detail! I’ll bet our little boy is going to be the world’s best artist when he grows up.” Rhodey smirked, and Peter blushed. 

“MJ did better.” 

“Who’s MJ?” Pepper asked. 

“She sits at my table. One boy was being mean and grabbed her pigtails. She hit him with her book.”

“I’m glad you met some new people, now where do you wanna go now?” 

“Ice cream!” Peter shouted, and ran to the car. “Stark Raving Hazelnuts. I’m a Stark!”

“Yes, that you are.” Rhodey affirmed, and squeezed Tony’s hand. “We’re Starks for life.” 


	4. Kindergarten

It started like a normal day. Tony woke up, downed his coffee like it was a religion. Rhodey had already been up, reading the news. They prepared breakfast, cinnamon rolls, and went to wake Peter up.

"Good morning Pete!" Rhodey said after kissing his son's forehead.

"Good morning pops!" Peter said but he didn't want to wake up, and instead rolled to the other side of his bed.

It was Tony's turn to try to wake Peter, so he sat on the bed. 

"Aren't you excited Pete? You will meet even more new friends today."

"I want to sleep." Tony looked solemnly at Rhodey and nodded.

"Then we don't have any other choice." Tony and Rhodey started to attack Peter with tickles.

"Stop! Dad! Pops! Okay I'm awake, please." Peter said while laughing, and swatted their hands away. 

\--

After they had their breakfast, they were on their way to Peter's kindergarten, at the big public school that they had shown Peter just a week ago. 

"Do you think MJ will be there?" Peter asked, bouncing up and down in his carseat. 

"I think so." Rhodey answered while driving. "Most of the kids from your preschool will be there." 

Tony realized Peter was smiling. He has been good friends with MJ in this one year. From what Peter told, MJ wasn't really talkative but she wasn't mean to him. And when someone acted meanly to one of them, they backed each other up. 

When they arrived at the school, Peter jumped out of the car in excitement. He even forgot his R2D2 backpack in the car. Fortunately, Rhodey was a careful person unlike Peter and Tony, and checked the back seat before going after Peter.

"Didn't you forget something Pete?" Rhodey asked.

"My backpack…" Peter realized and his face turned serious.

"I know you’re excited but you shouldn't forget your belongings. I might not have realized it or you might have forgotten it somewhere else. You would be sad, if we were not able to find your backpack, wouldn't you? " Peter nodded and Rhodey gave him his backpack.

"I won't forget you again Artooie." Peter was hugging his backpack. 

"Okay, it's time to go in." Tony said and took Peter's left hand. Rhodey held his right hand. 

When they walked through the doorway, they were greeted by the teacher Mrs. Rose. She was an older lady, with blond hair and a raspy voice. Nonetheless, she seemed very knowledgeable and excited for the year to come. While they were talking with Peter's teacher, Tony realized Peter wasn't paying any mind to the conversation, and in fact, seemed to be looking for someone. 

"Is MJ here?" He asked his son. Rhodey was doing the talking right now and one of them had to take care of their son who was absolutely bored out of his mind before Peter began to run around. 

"I'm looking but I can't see her." It was a little bit hard to find someone, especially a kid while there were so many parents. 

"Okay then we will look for her." Tony saw the happiness in his son's eyes after saying that. He looked at Rhodey, as if getting his approval. 

"You are okay here, right? We are going to try to find MJ." Rhodey nodded and turned back to Mrs. Rose, who was listening to the security concerns Rhodey had for Peter. 

So the father-son duo started searching for Peter's friend but before they could find her, a voice stopped them.

"Is this an R2D2 bag?" The kid asked. It seemed like he was in Peter's age. He was a round little kid, and looked so excited he would burst. 

"Yes." Peter answered.

"I have a Chewbacca bag!" The kid said excitedly and ran over to his his hook pull the bag off. 

"You like Star Wars too?" Peter asked hopefully.

"I love Star Wars." The kid said, with confidence of a four year old. 

"I'm Peter by the way." Peter introduced himself.

"Ned." The kid, Ned, said.

"You are so lucky to find a friend who shares your interest Pete." Tony said.

"In my experience, there is no such thing as luck." They both said at the same time. Tony was happy because it was obvious that his son found his new best friend, and a little perturbed because if they already had the mind reading thing down, there was no way Tony could control them. 

"Hey Pete!" Tony heard a girl voice between them. The same voice who had blatantly told him that his mac and cheese game could be better.

"Hi MJ! Meet with my new friend. This is Ned." Peter pointed at Ned. "And Ned this is MJ." He turned back to MJ. "Ned also loves Star Wars." 

"I don't know a lot about Star Wars but I love Princess Leia and Padmé Amidala. Leia was so brave and Padmé was a queen when she was young." MJ said matter of factly and Tony could tell that pretty soon the trio would be running around the mansion yelling all things Star Wars.

"Who is your favourite character?" Peter asked Ned. 

"Mine is Han Solo, he’s so cool." Ned answered, “I wanna be like him when I grow up.”

Tony looked at his husband, he was done talking and coming up next to them. Peter tugged Rhodey’s leg and pointed at Ned.

"Pops, meet with my new friend. His name is Ned." 

"Hi!" Ned said.

"Hi Ned, it's nice to meet you. Hey MJ!" Rhodey greeted Peter's friends.

"It looks like we should go. Bye Pete, we will see you after school, okay?" 

"Okay. See you dad, see you pops!" 

\--

By the end of that week, between the kid’s parents, they had arranged a sleepover. In hindsight, it was a stressful idea. In execution, it was enough to make Tony want to go back to his alcoholic days. 

“May the force be with you!” MJ yelled, chasing DUM-E around with a book. Apparently the girl believed that someone received the force when they got hit with a book. Tony only had a moment to be concerned before Rhodey came to his rescue. 

“Okay kiddos, what Jedis here want PIZZA?”

“Me!”

“I do!”

“FOOD!”

“I’m never letting those tyrants into my workshop again, DUM-E put that down or I will turn you into a garbage disposal.”

“Come on up, and let’s eat some pizza with them.” The sound of glass breaking could be heard. 

“This was your idea and I completely blame you.” Rhodey gave Tony a stern look and then bolted up the stairs to ensure everyone’s safety. 

“Jarvis, set up the Star Wars marathon, we’re gonna need it I’m thinking.”

“I do believe you will, also sir, I have taken the liberty of unfolding the couch so maybe the children will fall asleep during the movie.”

“You are an angel Jarvis.”

“I am quite aware. But if you do not go upstairs, I’m afraid you will be in the dog house, so to speak, as Rhodey is losing his mind.”

\--

“We are never hosting again.” Rhodey mumbled, collapsing on Tony’s chair. 

The three kids had fallen asleep on the fold out couch, MJ using her book as a pillow, Peter was sprawled in the middle, and Ned was snoring happily hugging Peter’s Chewie stuffie. Revenge of the Sith played in the background, mainly to cover up any noise that might wake the children up, such as the fridge or dishwasher. Before he could fall on Rhodey and happily go to sleep, he needed to cover the kids. 

“Night night guys.” Tony whispered, covering them with a Star Wars blanket. It was of the storm troopers, and Tony was hoping it would chase all their bad dreams away. He went to each side of the couch-bed and tucked the blanket in, ensuring their warmth the entire night through. 

Tony was pretty sure that tonight, he would fall asleep, and stay asleep until acted upon by a greater force, because right now, his heart was full, but his battery was not. Draping himself across Rhodey, he murmured, “Isn’t this everything you dreamed it be?”

“It’s even better because it’s real and I’m with you.” Rhodey brushed a kiss along Tony’s head before he dozed off.


	5. Fort Building

Peter’s school has been closed at the last minute. The call had come in at four in the morning, reporting that the water system had broken all the bottom floor bathrooms had leaked. That meant that either Rhodey or Tony had to be home to stay with Peter. 

Neither of them minded having to apologetically tell their higher ups (Pepper was scarier than the military) that they would not be able to come in. In fact, they fought about who should call in and stay with Peter.

“Peter obviously wants me.” Tony fought. 

“But I make better meals.” 

“I want you both.” Pete said at the doorway, holding his stuffed animal Chewie. 

“Well that was easy.” Tony mumbled, and then flipped back on his bed. “Jarvis tell Pep I’m not coming in today.” 

“Of course sir. Shall I tell your superiors the same James?” 

“Yes, send an email their way. Thank you Jarvis.”

“It is my pleasure.” 

“Can I sleep with you guys?” Peter asked, as soon as Jarvis had stopped talking. 

“Sure Pete,” Rhodey ran to the little boy and grabbed him by the legs. With a measured amount of strength, Rhodey tossed Peter onto the bed, earning a fit of giggles from the boy. 

“That’s not fair!” Peter laughed, and Tony sat up and started to tickle Peter’s stomach, his weakness. Soon, they had Peter in a fit of hysterical laughter while Tony and Rhodey hit each other with pillows. By the time they had calmed down, their comforter was completely thrown off the bed, the sheets were draping over the edge, and Peter was covered in a pile of pillows. 

—

Tony was welcomed from the grocery store to an eerie silence. With a little ball of energy at five years old, the silence concerned him. Until he walked into his bedroom to change. 

“Surprise!” Peter yelled, and Tony found his entire room transformed into a huge tumbling fort, with blankets and pillows from every room of their house.

“Welcome to our fort. Care to join us?” 

Tony smiled and was about to crawl in when Peter stopped him.

“Pjs only.”

“Well then young padawan, I shall be back in a moment.” Tony went to his closet and emerged a moment later in a pair of gray pants and an old ragged MIT t-shirt that he was pretty sure was actually Rhodey’s. 

“Now may I come in?”

“Enter now.” Peter said, waving him in. He was in his fuzzy bear onesie, the one with little footies and a hood that had two fuzzy bear ears. It was his favorite thing to wear, and sometimes, they had a hard time getting Peter out of it in the morning so they could put in the wash. 

Rhodey was in his plaid pjs he had gotten from his mom last Christmas, and Tony entered the fort amazed. Rhodey was the absolute best fort maker, it helped when he knew engineering like the back of his hands. The fort itself had three tunnels, a main area, and white lights illuminating the space. All of Peter’s stuffies were piled into the fort and Tony attempted not to step on any of them. 

“What are we doing here?” 

“In that tunnel we space travel. The other tunnel is a time tunnel. The third one is where we try not to wake the sleeping dragon.” Peter told him and handed him a foam sword. “Just in case he accidentally wakes up.” 

“Come! We must awaken the force!” Rhodey whispered, and crouched into the time travel tunnel. “We shall go back in time to fix what has been lost!” 

They spent two hours “slaying” the dragon, going back and time and bringing George Washington the present so that they could find the treasure. Peter had recently watched National Treasure, one of Tony and Rhodey’s favorite movies, and was apparently building the story around that plot. Except this time, a fire breathing dragon was holding them back.

“Pizza has arrived. Do you explorers have a moment to rest and eat?” Jarvis asked. 

“I think we do Jarvis. Come on Dad, Pops! We gotta fuel up for our mission!”

“That we do! Let’s go!” Rhodey shouted, and made a way for the exit. In doing so, he knocked over one of the supporting pillows, and a domino effect ensued. 

“Pops!” Peter yelled, trying to stand up but held down by three pillows stacked up on top of him. 

“I’m coming!” Tony felt Rhodey shift beside them and then he saw Rhodey stand up, only to trip on Tony, and topple onto a pile of pillows. “Hang on bud!”

“Pepper is waiting in the kitchen to start eating.” Jarvis informed them, and Tony yelped. 

“This is all your fault Honeybear. If she catches us-”

“Already been done.” Pepper’s voice could be heard and Tony just knew she was at the doorway. “You guys are a mess. Come on, Tony, get up, I know you can move. Peter, let me help you, Pops isn’t getting anywhere.” 

“Auntie Pepper!” Peter exclaimed and hugged her once she had freed him from his entrapment. “I didn’t know you were coming!” 

“Of course I had to see my favorite guy!”

“Well count me as offended.” Tony huffed, grabbing Rhodey’s leg and trying to find his other leg in the mass of blankets. 

“Oomph! That’s the wall!” Rhodey yelled as Tony tried to pry him out of the sheets.

Between the four of them, they were able to pry Rhodey out of the sheets that had gotten tangled around his leg and in ten or so minutes, they were sitting down at the dinner table ready to dig into the pizza. 

“We were exploring a deep dark cave…” Peter’s voice kept on the conversation easily with Pepper and Tony smiled. If this was life, he was pretty proud of his.


	6. Disney World

The moment they got out of the car, Peter ran out of the vehicle with his rolling suitcase and into the glass doors of the hotel. “Peter!” Tony shouted, running after him. How the boy had energy after bouncing around the entire night instead of sleeping amazed both Tony and Rhodey. When they had told the boy they were going to Disney, he had been beyond uncontrollable, radiating pure delight, and to the two dad’s exhaustion, more energy than ever. 

They had reserved a bungalow, with two bedrooms, a kitchen, a pool, and easy access to the parks. Even though it would have been very fun for them to have stayed in a more disney themed area, privacy was very important, and they knew a few sacrifices would have to be made. 

Peter didn’t seem to mind though, and charmed the lady at the desk. She gave him a lei to wear around his neck, and wished them a good stay. 

“We get a pool?” Peter said, running across the deck and eagerly checking out the inside. “That must be your room, I’m right across from you!”

“Yes, now Pete, how about you change into your swimsuit and we’ll let you go swimming?” Rhodey urged, and Peter ran off into his room with his suitcase to find his swimsuit. 

“I figure that’s one way to unpack without him grabbing all the food.”

“We need to create snack bags, and I need to make sure Jarvis can be hooked up to this house.”

“We don’t need Jarvis in this house.” Rhodey argued.

“We have never cooked without Jarvis, and I don’t wanna burn this place down.” 

Rhodey gave in. He did have a point. “Okay, I’m going to make us some lemonade and one of us has to watch Peter in the pool.”

“I’ll pack snack bags out on the deck. I’m pretty sure there’s a table out there.”

“I don’t know, I could barely process anything beyond Peter’s excitement over the pool.” Rhodey grinned. “I’m glad we thought of this idea.”

“Correction, I thought of this idea, you claimed it as your own.”

“Liar.”

“Idea stealer.”

\--

By the end of four days’ time, they had been to every single park and bought more merchandise than was humanly possible. Tony had investigated how hard it would be to get a foot into Disney, and Peter had the time of his life on the rides. And Tony was pretty sure that Peter had eaten so much pineapple Dole Whip that at least 20 percent of his weight could be attributed to it. 

By far, Peter’s favorite park was Animal Kingdom, and he was more than delighted to find out that you could actually take a safari ride, so he patiently waited in line for almost an hour so he could see the animals in real life. 

He was most excited about seeing the elephants and nearly cried with joy when one came closer to the car. “Look Pops! It’s a real life elephant!”

“I see that. Look Peter! Another one right there.” Rhodey took Peter’s finger and pointed to a nearby rock, where another elephant was.  
The giraffes were another part of the safari that delighted Peter. They came close enough to the car that if people had really tried, a long tree branch would be able to poke the giant. Instead of doing that though, Rhodey just took a picture of Peter with his camera and saved it as his lock screen.

\--

When finally, their trip was closing off, Tony couldn’t even remember how many rides he had been on. They had long since ran out of snack bags and had to buy more food, and Peter still managed to have the same amount of energy as he did at first. 

Peter had loved almost every single attraction he had been on, but he had most enjoyed the rollercoasters and everything Star Wars of Hollywood Kingdom. He had taken a small twenty minute class on how to be a Jedi and now wore his robe whenever he was cold enough to put it on (seriously, Tony has stopped carrying a coat in favor of the simple robe.) 

They had gone to many plays (including the muppets, which Peter decided he didn’t like) and eaten so much Tony felt fat. Rhodey had assured him that he most certainly wasn’t fat, and even if he ate too much, he was burning off the calories chasing Peter around the parks.

By far, Tony’s favorite part of the trip was getting to join in on the daily parade on Magic Kingdom’s Main Street. On discovering that the Starks were taking. Strip to Disney, many of the guests had pleaded that they be part of the parade, and after much discussion, they had decided that it might be fun to participate in. 

Tony and Rhodey had both held one of Peter’s hands as they began the parade, and by the end of it, Rhodey had picked up and carried their son. It hasn’t been so much a fun time as it had been memorable, and Tony cherished the memory of getting the opportunity. More so, he knew that within the public eye, there was only so much he was capable of doing, and he was thankful that for a week, the media gave him a break and allowed him to just enjoy his family.


	7. Ironman 1

7

After three months of captivity, Tony was finally free. Three months since he saw his platypus and Petey-Pie, three months of dread that somehow, whatever came for him had also come for them. 

Stepping off the plane he saw Rhodey holding Peter’s hand. Upon seeing Tony, Peter started shouting and running to him, with Rhodey trailing behind Peter. Tony barely could contain his glee and held out his arms as Peter’s small body crashed into his open arms, while Rhodey’s firm hug surrounded the both of them. For a second, Tony let himself get lost in his thoughts, remembering Yinsen asking if he had any family. Yes, he did have a family, two of his most favorite people were surrounding him, and in that moment, he didn't want anything else. Looking up to say thank you to Rhodey, Tony realized that his husband’s eyes were filled with tears, and he realized with surprise and uncertainty that Rhodey was sobbing into his shoulder.

"Never will I allow you to go somewhere alone once again." Rhodey choked out, “Next time, I’ll ride with you.”

“I’m not leaving you two again,” Tony responded, his voice hoarse with his own tears. 

"I missed you dad." Peter was sobbing, trying to act brave by wiping his tears on his dad’s tattered T-shirt. 

"I missed you, Pete, I promise you, I’m always gonna come back for you. I’ll never leave you.” 

“C’mon guys, let’s go back to the car, I’m sure you’re tired. Peter, hold daddy’s other hand, let’s bring him back to the car.” 

At the car, Happy and Pepper were waiting for them, with undeniable tears in the corners of their eyes. 

"Welcome back boss." 

"You scared us there."

"After all these years you should have known I would come back." Tony replied, squeezing Peter’s hand, “After all, I couldn’t let Rhodey teach this kid manners.” 

"Ahh, we know." Rhodey, Pepper and Happy said at the same time, lighting up the somber mood with small smiles. Together, all of them stumbled into the car. 

"Where are we going boss?" Happy asked.

"Hospital!" Pepper and Rhodey said at the same time, and Happy was about ready to go when Tony interjected. 

"Nooo, I'm hungry. I'm sure Peter is also hungry." Tony looked at the boy who was leaning on him, nearly half asleep. Nonetheless, Peter nodded, always excited for food. 

"Cheeseburgers! Cheeseburgers all around! Is it okay for you kid?" Peter nodded again, this time a little more awake at the mention of fast food. 

"Tony, we should really go to ho-" Tony cut Rhodey.

"We are both hungry Honeybear. You don't want to see us hungry, do you? And I missed an American cheeseburger." Tony knew Rhodey couldn't deny Peter's puppy eyes.

"You two are going to be the death of me." Rhodey replied. 

Tony turned to Pepper this time."And Pep, can you arrange a press conference?"

"No, Tony you just got kidnapped. You need rest, food, and time to heal , I’ll set up a press conference later this week. "

"No no no, today. After we buy our cheeseburgers."

"Isn't it a little bit early? Are you even okay Tones?" Rhodey asked softly, and Tony knew that Rhodey wanted to ask more, but he wouldn’t do so until Peter wasn’t present. 

"I am okay Rhodey but it’s important that I do this." Rhodey looked quizzically at Tony's eyes to see if he was telling the truth.

"I will tell you when Peter is not here, okay?" Tony whispered and Rhodey nodded, wrapping his arm around Tony’s shoulder. 

"Is that a yes, Pep?" 

"I don’t like it but fine."

"Thanks Pep." 

\--

By the time they got to Burger King, Peter was sleeping so Tony and Rhodey left him in the car with Happy and went to get the cheeseburgers. 

They gave their orders and Rhodey turned to Tony."Peter’s not here, you can tell what happened to me now." Rhodey gave Tony an expectant look and Tony sighed. 

"Okay, come with me." Tony wasn’t sure how he could tell him what happened in words so he thought it would be better if he showed it.

They walked into the men’s bathroom. Tony pushed Rhodey into the handicapped stall and made sure no one was in the bathroom. And then, with all the strength left in his bones, he ripped open his shirt. 

"This happened."

"What? What is that? Tony are you okay?" Rhodey started to panic, and Tony reached on to hold his husband’s shoulder.

"I'm okay, don't worry. This is keeping me alive actually, it’s kinda funny. Umm, well, it’s hard to explain. But there’s kinda shrapnel so close to my heart that this arc reactor prevents it from going to my heart and um, well, killing me? ."

"Oh…" Rhodey was shocked and it was obvious that he couldn't find any words to say. So that's why he entirely changed the topic.

"So what is this press conference about?" Rhodey asked, knowing from Tony’s eyes that there was more about this as well. 

"I don't want to make weapons anymore."

"Have you just said you won't make any weapons?" Tony knew this was going to be some shocking news for Rhodey, especially since Tony’s weapons protected both Rhodey and his unit, but he also knew his husband would be there for him.

"Yeah.”

'Why?"

"I saw, them, people, using my weapons to kill innocent people, innocent children. If someone uses my own weapons to kill you, to kill Peter? I can't live with that Rhodey.” Tony’s voice dropped a little and Rhodey could tell that Tony was close to tears. “And I don't want the legacy I leave for Peter to be that." Rhodey nodded silently, not sure how to respond to Tony’s points. He had never even thought about this. However, he still had one question.

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Clean energy maybe. SI has the arc reactor technology. We can use it for good, we can save people's lives, like this saved mine." Tony tapped on his arc reactor. Then he looked at Rhodey’s eyes, the man could almost always show what he was thinking if you knew him well enough. He had known Rhodey for countless years, he was able to guess what his husband was thinking. He knew Rhodey had question marks in his mind but then again, Tony also wasn't sure about many things either. However, they both knew this was the right thing to do.

Rhodey was the one who broke the silence.

"I don't think Obadiah will agree with you on that but I support you Tones. I will always support you, I hope you never forget that. 

Tony hugged Rhodey. “I know." 

"Our order is probably ready." Rhodey hated breaking up their hug, all he wanted to do was hold Tony in his arms forever, but they had a press conference to attend and a son to check up on. And cheeseburgers. Never forget those. 

"Finally, you can't imagine how much I missed a good cheeseburger."

"More than me?" Rhodey asked playfully.

"Nah, you know I missed you and Peter the most."

\--

Obadiah was waiting for them when Tony emerged from the car. 

"Welcome back Tony, we were so worried."

"I'm here Obi, don't worry." Tony but into his cheeseburger, unashamedly waving the crowd off as he finished his burger. 

Peter was with Pepper also eating his cheeseburger. Pepper expertly took him and went to her office without anyone from the press seeing him.

"Did you buy me a cheeseburger too?" Obadiah nudged Tony, who shook his head. 

"Sorry, there was not enough."

Obie sighed before leading Rhodey and Tony inside. Tony was about ready to stand on the pedestal and start talking, but instead he walked to the front and slid down until he was sitting. 

"Can everyone sit down? This would be less formal." Everyone sat down and Tony started talking.

"I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them." He could see so many people looking at him questionably.

"Aaahh, Mr. Stark what happened over there?" A reporter asked 

"I had my eyes open." Tony stood up.

"I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things blow up." He looked at Rhodey's eyes, and nodded. "That's why effective immediately, I'm shutting down the weapons manufacturing in Stark International."

The whole place exploded, as reporters fought to ask more questions and began yelling into their mics. Rhodey silently pulled Tony’s good arm and pulled him away. 

“Let’s go home.” 

“We gotta take care of the aftermath.”

Rhodey shook his head and pointed at the crowd. “Look at that Tones. All those reporters are ready to butcher you. Stark Industries has just made headlines for the next month. But none of that matters.” 

“What?” Tony was kinda hurt that Rhodey said that. He had promised to support Tony’s decisions, not to tell him that it was a useless attempt. 

“Look at me.” Rhodey held Tony’s shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. “I support you. This isn’t about SI. This is about us. You, me, and Peter. Right now you’re not CEO. Right now you are Tony Rhodes, father and husband. We need you right now. Let the world burn, Peter and I need you to be home.” 

“Take me home then.” Tony whispered, and for the first time since he had been captured, he let his shoulders relax. 

-

“I’m never letting you go,” Rhodey whispered next to Tony that night in bed. Peter was in between them, happy to use his dad’s new chest piece as his nightlight, while Rhodey wrapped both arms around his entire world. 

“I never want you to.” Tony whispered back. The world could burn, the sky could fall, but he had Rhodey, and he had Peter. And in the end, they were all that mattered. 

  
  
  
  



	8. Stark Expo

“You gave the suit to Hammer?” Tony yelled, and Rhodey shook his head. 

“No, the military did.”

“Fuck the military.” Tony mumbled, and then turned to Rhodey. “You were supposed to keep that away from them!”

“They saw me fighting alongside you. They ordered me to.”

“This isn’t going to end well.” Tony grumbled, and then went down to his lab, locking Rhodey out while he investigated how badly this was going to end. However, he knew that his worst ideas were only a fraction of the truth. 

\--

“We got trouble.” Tony said over the comms. 

“Tony, there are civilians present. I’m here on orders. Let’s not do this right now.”

“Give them a wave.” Tony looked at the hologram of Rhodey in the War Machine armor that Jarvis had pulled up. Rhodey had never liked being in the spotlight, and this was likely killing him. “All these people are in danger. We gotta get them out of here. You gotta trust me for the next five minutes.”

“You almost died without telling me. I don’t trust you right now.” 

“Listen, I think he’s working with Vanko.”

“Vanko’s alive?” Rhodey sounded surprised, and Tony remembered that he hadn’t told Rhodey about his visit to the prison...whoops. Guess that was going on the ‘tell Rhodey once we get this shit finished,” list. 

“Hang on, I’m landing.” Tony landed in a classic superhero pose, ouch his knees, and the crowd cheered. Louder than they had for Hammer, Tony couldn’t help but smirk at that fact. 

“Where is he?” Tony’s faceplate flipped up and Hammer was surprised and confused. 

“Who’s he?”

“Where’s Vanko?”

“What do you mean man?” Justin whispered.

Out of the corner of Tony’s eye, he saw Rhodey’s missile focused on him. “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.”

“Is that you?” Tony didn’t want to ask, ‘are you trying to kill me?’ but it seemed necessary at that point. 

“No, I’m not doing that. That’s not me. I can’t move. I’m locked up. I’m locked up! Get out of here. Go! This whole system’s been compromised!”

“Let’s take this outside,” Tony mutters, and shoots into the sky. He’s aware of the missiles shooting at him, but right now he’s more worried about Rhodey locked up in a suit that was supposed to protect him, not entrap him. “Jarvis! Break in! I need to own him.”

“Tony, Tony, I’m locked on. I have target lock.” Rhodey yelled frantically through the comms. 

“On what?”

“On you!” Tony only had a moment before he heard, “Tony! On your six!” and a missile came flying at him. He moved away just in time. 

“Jarvis! Reboot progress?” 

“Remote reboot was unsuccessful.”

The drone stopped shooting at Tony and instead turned their mission to the crowds, who were making a mad exodus to anywhere but the Expo, and Tony heard Rhodey’s desperate voice on the comms. 

“TONY! Peter is in the crowd!” 

“Jarvis, call Pepper.” Tony ordered, and made a swift U-turn. “Where is Happy? Natasha?

“Hammer Industries.” Jarvis immediately answered, popping a map up on Tony’s screen. 

“I don’t want to know. Where is Pepper?”

“With Hammer, trying to sort out this mess.”

“WHOSE WITH PETER?”

“Currently no one.” 

“Rhodey, he’s after Peter, forget me, he wanted Peter alone.” Tony rushed, and Rhodey cursed. 

\--

Tony landed next to Peter, who still had on Mark 4’s mask that Tony had let him wear. Peter was in front of a drone, holding up his hand as if to blast the drone. Instead, Tony did it for him. 

“Jarvis. Activate 17A, get Peter out of here. Call May, bring them home.” Tony paused for a precious moment. “Nice work kid.”

\--

“You got multiples coming at you.” Rhodey informed Tony. 

“Let’s get this away from the Expo.”

“Drop your socks and grab your Crocs. We’re about to get wet on this ride.”

“Do not make college references or I will willingly shoot you.” 

Tony grinned. “Nope, we’re just gonna kick ass.”

“Does that apply to drones?” Rhodey questioned. 

“Don’t steal my thunder.” 

\--

“You know, most of the time I would consider this sexy.” Tony managed, “but right now you’re trying to shoot my head off, so it’s really not.”

“Shut up Tony.” Rhodey said, as his suit pinned down Tony. Tony struggled underneath it before hearing a familiar voice. 

“Reboot complete. You got your husband back.” Natasha told him and Tony smiled as he threw Rhodey off of him. 

“Thank you Agent Romanoff.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You got more coming.”

\--

Tony tapped Rhodey’s helmet and it flipped up easily. “Oh man, you can have your suit back.”

Tony smirked. “Nah, you’re stuck with it. We got more coming, you okay?’

“Yeah,” Rhodey stood up with the help of Tony, “Look, Tones, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“No, I should’ve trusted you more.”

“I’m the one who put you in this position. Forget it.”

“No. It’s your fault. I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“Thank you. That’s all I wanted to hear. Partner. They’re coming in hot, any second. What’s the play?”

“I’m the big gun, I’ll go on the ridge.”

“You have a big gun. You are not the big gun.”

“Funny that you’re the bottom and I’m the big spoon, and yet you’re the big gun?”

“Save it for the honeymoon.” Natasha interrupted.

“Tony, don’t be jealous, you’re a power bottom. Your suit has very powerful guns.”

The conversation stopped there because by the time they had finished bickering, they were still in the kill zone and the drones were within shooting distance. Despite being in a bad place (quite literally,) Rhodey and Tony took advantage of what they could do. 

“Get down!” Tony yelled, and activated a laser, successfully chopping multiple drones in half. And a tree, but minor details. “Also, Natasha, our honeymoon already happened. However, if you’re willing to babysit Peter, Honeymoon 2.0 wouldn’t be bad-”

“Couldn’t you have used that in the beginning?” Rhodey was referring to the laser, and Tony rolled his eyes, knowing Rhodey had successfully diverted the conversation. 

\--

Ivan was in a suit. Kinda like a flashback. Iron Monger 2.0, and Tony could feel Rhodey side eyeing him. Yeah, okay Rhodey, not the time. He was going to get such a mouthful after this, Tony almost wanted to die so that he wouldn’t have to put up with it.

“I got an idea.” Tony looked at Rhodey. “I could use a sidekick, put your hand up, you know, the one I put a ring on.” 

Rhodey, knowing exactly what Tony was thinking, muttered under his breath, “This is your idea?”

“Ready? GO!” 

\--

They landed on the roof of the Malibu Mansion before getting out of their respective suits. The first thing They he did was surprise Tony by grabbing him and giving him an aggressive kiss. 

“You look like two seals fighting over a grape.” May commented, interrupting their kiss.

“We were here first. Get a roof.” Rhodey jabbed back and held his arms to hug Peter. “Hey Pete.”

“I saw you guys fighting on TV!” Peter seemed more than happy to tell them all that he saw and Tony laughed as he took Rhodey’s hand. He imagined it wasn’t going to be easy to relax after this.


	9. Camping

“Does it really count as camping if we’re in a camper?” Peter mused, and Tony gave him a look. 

“Of course it does, now where did I put the s’more stuff?” 

“Do you even know how to make a fire?” Peter continued. 

“Peter. Your pops and I went to MIT. We can make a fire.”

“Yes, by accident you can, but like, on purpose? Safely?”

“Rhodey! Your son is back talking to me!”

“He’s your son too!” Rhodey yelled from the back of the camper, hooking up the water systems. 

Okay, so maybe the camper was a bit over the top, but when was Tony anything but over the top? Maybe the full kitchen was not needed in a camper, but it was nice. And Jarvis was only built in so that Tony and Rhodey would not manage to kill each other fighting over directions. 

In his defense, when he had looked up RVs he had no idea so many existed, and when he saw one that was nice he didn’t think that two million was a lot of a RV, but after he bought it Rhodey told him what he meant by RV. 

\--

“Where’s the RV?” Rhodey asked the morning of their camping trip. Peter was wide awake, eating a donut.

“I unpacked it last night. We are going camping, old style.”

“You’re kidding right?” Tony said groggily. 

“He is not kidding, he returned the RV late last night,” Jarvis sounded irritated and Tony was confused. 

“Why didn’t you stop him?”

“I was shut down for an hour. Do you know how much I had to read up on when I came back? I missed my daily news update.” Jarvis sounded grumpy and Peter sighed. 

“I just want to do this old style. Like in the movies.”

“The movies are overrated.” 

—

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You forgot bug spray?” Tony stared at Peter who shrugged sheepishly. 

“You forgot bug spray.” Peter attempted, but Tony shook his finger. 

“No, I had the RV all packed, but someone, you specifically, unpacked it.” 

“I’m my defense, I did it in the dark. But I did find a cool trail we can hike!” 

“Without bug spray?” 

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad.” 

—

Not bad. Not bad. Tony has never been this close to raging mad at Peter. He was quite sure he had hundreds of bug bites littering his skin and Rhodey wasn’t much better off. But unlike Tony, he was used to being outside, while Tony was squishy and preferred the indoors or a metal suit.

“How much further is the peak? I’m getting tired here.”

“It’s over this hill.” 

“You said that three hills ago. Give me that map.” Rhodey held his hand out and studied the map.

“Pete, we’re on restricted land. The trial cut off a mile ago.” 

“You’re joking right?” Tony huffed, and took the water bottle out of his backpack. “I’m almost out of water.” He said and stuck out his lip.

“Okay, we just gotta get out of here and back onto the trail.” Peter shrugged, “How hard how is that Pops?”

“Harder than it looks. Right now we are in this area.” Rhodey pointed. “And if my compass is right, we are facing West. And the fastest way back would be through a swamp. If we take the long way back, it will be easier, but a much longer walk back, not to mention the two mile walk once we find the trail again.”

“I am never letting you lead the way again.” 

“It’s not my fault! Had you guys included me in the planning-“

“Hold up, we were going to go rock climbing today, I thought you wanted to do that?”

“Yeah, but like, also, I like old school camping.”

“We’re about to get to experience old school camping in the middle of the woods if we don’t start walking.” Rhodey interrupted. 

—

“I thought we were supposed to find the trail an hour ago?” Tony asked, and Rhodey sighed. 

“Peter!” Rhodey yelled after a moment of silence. 

“Yes pops?” Peter asked carefully. 

“This map is from 1987! The trail isn’t even accurate!” 

“Oh no.” Tony mumbled, and grabbed Rhodey with strength he didn’t know he had. “Let’s go simmer down.” 

—

“Okay, I need Peter, yes you, to go out and find some sticks for the fire.” Rhodey ordered. They had found a cave to stay the night in (Tony and Peter made Rhodey go in first to check for wild animals) and was now ordering everyone to their duties. He was ranting on about how they should be glad he was always prepared in case of emergency. 

“I have a can of tuna, a dinner roll, and a small container of peanut butter.” Rhodey announced.

“I call peanut butter!” 

“Let’s get this bread!” Peter yelled, taking the bread from his father. 

“Guys, we’re not going to starve.” 

“And how do you know that?” Tony countered.

“Guys, the only reason we aren’t going forward is because it’s dark.” 

“You’re just saying that to reassure us.” 

“Guys!”

—

“Guys, it’s going to be forty tonight, you’re not going to freeze.” Rhodey said in the dark, probably because Tony and Peter were squished next to him. 

“No, this is so that if someone scares us, you’ll wake up too.” Peter spoke out. 

“I’m the lightest sleeper here.” 

“Not tonight you aren’t.” Tony replied knowing full well that sleep would not come easily that night. 

—

“Wake up you sleepy heads!” Rhodey sang that next morning at six. 

“It’s too early for this.” Tony groaned. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Turn off the light pops.” Peter mumbled, and turned around so his face was covered. 

“I can’t turn off the sun Peter. Come you sack of bones, the sun is shining, the day is in full bloom.”

“Have I mentioned I hate morning people?” Tony asked, but was starting to wake up. “Because I do.”

“Aww, honey, you don’t hate me. Especially since I found the trail back.”

“You did?” Peter sat up. 

“Yeah. Let me show you.” Rhodey pulled Peter up. 

They exited the cave and Rhodey pointed up. 

“You see right above this rock, you see that flat area, that’s the trail.” 

“We slept under the trail the entire night?” Tony deadpanned, and Rhodey grinned. 

“Yes, yes we did.”


	10. Battle of New York

Sometimes the job of being Ironman was a burden. And the Battle of New York was no exception. Tony had been willing to sacrifice himself before, but never had he tasted the bitter side of death. He supposed he only tasted it because he was so close to death itself right now. Right now, he was ascending the stairs of heaven (or the highway to hell, it depended on who you asked). His death was most certain. After all? Who expected him to come out of this alive? He was bringing a nuke into an alien wormhole to save the city of New York, the odds of survival weren’t in his favor. 

Secretly, his reasons for doing so weren’t as heroic as they looked. Yes, he was saving all of the tri-state area by doing this, but more importantly, he was saving the lives of Rhodey and Peter, the two people he couldn’t fathom living without. They would be sad, and he knew that they would never get over his death, but they would move on, hopefully to a brighter future. 

“That’s a one way mission.” 

He knew Steve. He knew that the moment Fury called, it was going to be his death. But he hoped that angels he didn’t believe in were watching and took pity on not him, but the two people he was doing it all for. He hoped that when he was gone, they would flourish. Whether or not he was there to see it.

“Shall I call Rhodey?” Jarvis’ voice held great weight, and Tony could tell that Jarvis knew as well as him that this was the end. He never said Rhodey’s name like that. Never so informal. Maybe he would start after he died. It had always pissed Rhodey that Jarvis was always so formal with him. 

“Sure why not?” 

Tony wasn’t sure what he was expecting to hear when Rhodey picked up, but he didn’t expect to see Rhodey crying. 

“Please, Tony, Tony! Please, let-you gotta let it go now.” 

“I did this for you guys. Love y-“

“Connection lost sir.” Jarvis told him before Tony saw the wormhole swallowing him up. 

A world above him. The chitauri ships. The heart, the main ship. That, right there, was his target. With a peace he didn’t know he had, Tony let go of the nuke. He watched as the other chitauri ship blew up before his eyes. 

What is a legacy? Planting seeds that you never get to see. Only this time, he knew the full extent of that lyric. He was giving up his life for the life of his son and his husband, lives that he would never get to see blossom. 

He was free falling, and it felt natural. He had been rising his whole life, he should’ve expected the fall, wasn’t that what dear old Howard said to him one time? He wasn’t sure how it worked in space though. Would he fall until he froze to death? Would he never stop falling? The only thing he knew for sure that the same metal suit he created to protect himself was now his coffin. 

“Close it.” He could almost hear the echo of the good captain’s voice, and he knew that Natasha had closed the portal. His only way out. His only way home. 

Then there was a shift. It was barely more noticeable than a falling leaf. A slight change in the air, a flicker of a hologram screen. Was he descending into madness? 

Not a moment later, he felt himself forcefully grabbed. He didn’t even have time to process it before he crashed to the ground. But something wasn’t right. Something had broken his fall. 

“If you don’t wake up I will travel to hell myself and drag you back just to kill you.” 

Tony smiled at the familiar voice and felt a sudden wince of pain when his faceplate was forcibly removed. 

“Have you ever had shawarma Rhodey? There’s a shawarma joint two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is but I wanna try it.” 

Rhodey shook his head before helping Tony up. “If you ever try shenanigans like that again, I will kill you.” 

“I’m a cat Rhodey, I have nine lives.” 

“Well you’ve used all of them up.”

“Let’s get shawarma.” Tony mumbled, not comfortable talking with Rhodey about this here, in front of the avengers. 

“No, let’s get Peter. He’s at the tower. Probably he managed to hack Jarvis and watch everything that just ensued.” 

Tony was about to protest when Rhodey broke. “I just watched you fall from an alien wormhole, not knowing if you were even going to be alive when I got you out of that suit, and you’re telling me that your stomach is more important?” 

“I never said that.” 

“You didn’t need to. Go, I’m going to go check on Peter.” Rhodey’s faceplate flipped down and he rocketed into the sky, making a beeline for Stark Tower. 

—

The suit disassembled as Tony landed, and it was strange for him to not have a little boy waiting for him in the kitchen. No Peter was in sight, and Tony finally took a moment to examine what had happened. The broken glass, the toppled furniture, the imprints on the ground where Loki had been hit like a rag doll. All those marks needed to be fixed. God, had Peter seen all this? Where was he, was he safe? Tony had advised Peter to go down to Pepper’s office and stay with her, but that didn’t mean that the boy hadn’t seen the news footage, or come up and seen the wreckage. 

“I’m such an idiot.” Tony muttered, and he heard footsteps approach.

“Yeah, yeah, you are.” Rhodey agreed, and Tony couldn’t look at him. 

“If you’re trying to traumatize me more thanks, you succeeded.” 

“Peter, go back to your room.” Rhodey said, and Tony could spot the outline of Peter’s shadow fight near the back of the couch. 

“But if I’m here you won’t fight.” Peter’s small voice came out, and Rhodey shook his head. 

“Peter, go back into your room. I’ll be in to check on you in a few minutes.” 

Peter stood up and wordlessly dragged himself back into his room. Rhodey turned back to Tony, who wasn’t quick enough to to divert his gaze elsewhere. 

“He just wanted to see me.” Tony whispered. 

“He wanted to see you the moment you fell from the wormhole. But guess where you were? Eating shawarma.” 

“There was cleanup to do and Fury had pulled up a tv interview, not to mention we had to figure what to do with space brothers Blondie and-“ 

“No Tony!” Rhodey interrupted exasperated. “It’s not about the avengers. This is about Peter. This is about you and me. This is about us, a family.”

“Are you mad at me for flying that nuke into space? Because I did that for you!” Tony yelled, and looked Rhodey in the eyes. “Because I don’t want to live with the fact that I could be responsible for your death! And if I had to do it again, Mark my words James Rhodes, I would!” 

“I’m mad at you that you’d go do that for us and then leave us at the tower afterwards, because one moment you’re laying down your life poetically and the next it’s like, yep, see you later!” Rhodey argued. 

Tony was quiet, and turned around to the balcony. “I know. I know. I’m an idiot. I’m a terrible father, let alone husband. I failed. Okay?” 

“You’re not a bad father. Or a bad husband. But that was a bad decision.” Rhodey’s voice had gone down and he wasn’t looking at Tony, this time down the hallway. “Because I had to be the one to tell Peter that you were safe, alive and that you so badly wanted to be home but Fury was holding you back.”

“Fuck. I’ve got to go talk to Peter.” 

“Yeah, you do.” Rhodey stepped out of the way and gestured down the hallway. 

“James?” 

Rhodey stopped humming and looked seriously at Tony. He was probably surprised, Tony never called him James since like, the wedding day. And even then he had fought that he should say Rhodey instead of James. 

“What honey?” Rhodey asked softly. 

Tony barreled into Rhodey and held him. Rhodey’s strong arms enveloped him in a hug and before Tony knew it, he was being carried to the bedroom while Rhodey was kissing the top of his head. 

“It’s okay, I got you honey. Shh, come in Peter, dad needs hugs.” 

“Is he gonna be okay?” 

“Yeah, right now he’s just scared.” Rhodey patted the space next to him on the bed. 

Peter snuggled up into Rhodey’s shoulder and rubbed Tony’s back. 

“I’m sorry Pete. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Tony finally managed. 

“I forgive you, I’m happy you’re home.” Peter smiled. “I saw you on the news, everyone thinks you’re awesome. I’m gonna be the coolest kid at school.” 

“I’m glad I could do that for you Pete.” Tony gave Peter a smile with glossy eyes, “Are you telling me you’re not the coolest kid at school?” 

“Not this again!” 

“Yes this again!” 

“Oh great, I’ll get the popcorn.”


	11. Moving to NY

"Peter did you take everything you need?" Tony shouted to his son from down the hallway. 

"Yes dad! You have asked this question for the 12th time since noontime. I already checked with Jarvis." Peter shouted back. 

It was a stressful day in Stark-Rhodes household. After the media dubbed, ”Battle of New York”, Avengers had assembled for the first time, Stark Tower had been destroyed and Tony hadden fallen from an alien wormhole; then, Stark Tower was finally rebuilt and it would be known as Avengers Tower and that day very Tony had invited all of the Avengers to live in the tower.

Tony, Rhodey, and Peter were going before everyone else, a large portion of their stuff was already in transit to the tower. They were doing their last checks and Tony was more stressed about Peter’s stuff than anything else. Peter had never been a tidy person and Tony wasn’t sure about his son being ready to go. 

Maybe it wasn't entirely about that. Actually, it was barely about that. He was stressed about his son and husband meeting with the Avengers and they all were going to live together. He didn't want to admit but this was the truth. Other than Rhodey. He had never co-lived with others and he wasn’t exactly known to be the best with people. He was kinda, what did shield say? Compulsive? Self Destructive? Narcissistic tendencies? Yeah, he had no idea how he was expected to co-live with anyone but Rhodey. Sometimes, he thought, it was a miracle Rhodey was still with him, let alone married and raising a son together. 

Actually Bruce and Rhodey met before, when Tony took Bruce to show him his labs where Bruce was amazed and completely geeked out. Meanwhile Rhodey and Bruce had met and the three of them drank coffee together. It was peaceful, they talked, joked around and it seemed like they liked each other, Bruce being another logical person, since Rhodey was always telling Tony that logical people were a good thing in his life. 

Both Rhodey and Peter knew Natasha, erm, Natalie, as that was the name she used when they first met her while she was spying on Tony. After all the truth was revealed Rhodey and Natasha gotten on well and she had become Auntie Nat for all of them. 

Truth be told, Tony was scared about living with Steve. They said some bad things to each other when they first met and when Tony mentioned this to Rhodey, his husband was naturally angry and he was a little bit overprotective about this topic, but there was no escape. Rhodey had accepted this, as always, but promised that he would not hesitate to punch Captain America, serum be damned. 

After Tony made sure they took everything they needed, the small family got in the car and Tony began driving to the airport, where they would say goodbye to their Malibu home. Not that it was being sold (it held too many memories) but it wasn’t going to be their home base anymore. And how bittersweet the thought, having to close one sorry to open the next. 

\--

After 7 hours they were in front of the new Avengers Tower. As planned, no one was there yet. The trio went inside and put the last things they brought with them into their new places. When they were ready, JARVIS alerted them of the team’s arrival.

"The Avengers are here sir." 

"Okay JARVIS, thanks." Tony said, and took a deep breath before going downstairs to meet with his teammates.

Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton and Thor were waiting outside. It didn't take too long before Tony came to meet them, greeting them with his signature smile. 

"Welcome to your new home." Tony t-posed and Natasha rolled her eyes fondly. Following Tony’s lead, they went inside where Tony gave each of them their cards. 

"You always have to carry this with you. With this, you have access to every floor in the tower. This is for the security so please be careful to not lose them. And if you do, please tell me immediately so I can deactivate it." He explained.

"Thank you Tony, for everything." Steve thanked him and nodded. 

"You're welcome old man and hey, we’re a team, aren't we?" Steve nodded solemnly. Did the man ever smile? 

"There hasn't been many changes since the last time we were here." Natasha observed. 

"You speak too early Romanoff, you haven't seen the top floors yet."

"Thank you for your kindness Stark, you have a magnificent house here."

"Why thank you Thor."

"I agree with Thor, it's really fancy." Clint said, his amazement could be understood from his voice.

Tony grinned. He forgot that Clint had probably only been to places on SHIELD’s salary. That meant he was going to be extra amazed. "You haven't seen the best parts yet, let's go upstairs."

Tony saw Bruce was standing there shyly, so in a gesture to put him at ease, he put his arm around Bruce's shoulder and they all went to the elevator. "J, take us to the main floor please."

"Okay sir."

"That was Jarvis, he runs everything here. If you need anything or have any questions, you can ask them to him." Tony explained.

When they arrived to the main floor, Rhodey and Peter were waiting for them. 

"Before anything else, I want you guys to meet with my son Peter and husband Rhodey." Peter waved shyly and Rhodey smiled. 

"Hi Pete, Rhodey!" Nat greeted them.

"Hi Nat!" The father and son said at the same time.

"Do you know them?" Clint asked curiously.

"It is a long story, but I babysat Peter when these two were on their second honeymoon." Natasha said jokingly, and mirth could be detected in her eyes.

Clint was confused and Peter was laughing. 

"Actually it was just for dinner, but Nat prefers to tell that story like that because of a joke Tony made years ago." Rhodey explained. And then he turned his gaze to Steve. His eyes turned blank. "Captain Rogers." Rhodey greeted the living legend coldy (ha ha, pun completely intended).

"Colonel Rhodes." Steve responded but it was more warmly. 

"How did you know my rank?" Rhodey asked, and Tony could see his jaw clench a little more. Rhodey was a highly respectable military man, but he kept it quiet and preferred that it not be talked about. 

"When I woke up, from the ice I mean, Fury gave me some documents about Howard, Peggy and Tony's lives. I saw it there." Steve answered honestly.

\--

The meeting went so much better than Tony had anticipated.

Peter was amazed by Thor, no lie. Tony thought it was normal, not every 11 year old boy gets to meet with a god every day. And of course Steve, was one of the most important parts of any modern history lesson. Peter looked as if he was going to faint while shaking hands with the super soldier. 

But Peter's interest was mostly on Bruce. Tony guessed his son was going to ask a lot of questions to the doctor, Peter has always been curious about chemistry but still, Tony felt bad for his friend. Once Peter got started, he tended to talk until he got so tired out he fell asleep right there. Tony would know, Peter got it from him. 

The thing Tony didn't guess was Clint being good with kids. He was joking with Peter and quickly became Uncle Clint. Others were called Mr. or Dr. by Peter for now, and where he had gotten his manners Tony didn’t honestly know. Rhodey could pretend all he wanted, but Peter must’ve gotten his manners from May. 

Rhodey and Steve was having a engaging talk about modern day military strategies. Tony was so glad his husband wasn't trying to kill the super soldier in front of him. Caring about little details like his rank made Steve earn respect from Rhodey, as Rhodey could not handle being belittled when he was a Colonel and had worked hard to earn that rank. 

Their family was growing. Tony was happy that he was with his husband, son and new friends. He was feeling safer than ever. Everything was gonna be alright. It was gonna be a good life.


	12. Cooking

"Hey Pete, how was school?" Tony asked.

"It was great dad, I learned how to make spaghetti!" Peter answered, surprising Tony and concerning him just a tad. Did Peter not know how to boil water and make noodles?

"I didn't know you were going to learn how to cook today." Rhodey said. “I thought home ec. wasn’t taught these days.”

"Oh no, Cassie thought me. We were talking about our favorite meals and I said I liked spaghetti and she said it wasn't actually that hard to do it." Peter explained.

"Who is Cassie?" Tony asked while smiling mischievously. He had heard her name multiple times in the past week and was highly entertained. He could feel the glare Rhodey was giving him. 

"She’s the new girl I was talking about yesterday, her mom and dad divorced and she started going to our school. She became good friends with MJ and we welcomed her to our little group. And well, no lie, she is kinda cute." Tony acted like he didn't hear the last thing his son had just said, and brushed an invisible speck off his pants and stood up. 

"I don't want to offend your new friend but I'm sure I can make better spaghetti than her." Tony said arrogantly. “I’m Italian. It’s in my blood. 

"Oh Tones, we all know you are not good, let alone safe, when cooking and my mom has the best recipes of all time." Rhodey said proudly.

"You're right, Mama Rhodes has the best recipes but her son is unfortunately not good at cooking spaghetti. Don't you remember what happened last time?" Tony asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Hey, it was an accident." They didn't realize the fourth person in the room while arguing. 

"That sounds like there will be a competition." Clint joined in and flopped on the couch. “If so, I’m all in. Spaghetti is like, the easiest thing on earth. 

"Katniss is right." Tony agreed. "But all the Avengers are going to be a part of it. JARVIS tell the team to come to the kitchen."

\--

The rules were simple. There were three teams, every team was two person. Clint and Thor were the juries. They had 90 minutes. For spaghetti. That was plenty of time, that was 

Team 1 consisted of Peter and Nat, who called themselves the spider squad. 

Team 2 was the science bro’s, Tony and Bruce 

Team 3 Rhodey and Steve, who had dubbed themselves “Military Minutemen.”

Team 1: SpiderSquad

They were trying to do the spaghetti with Napolitana sauce. Natasha’s training with knives was helpful while cutting onions, carrots and celery in small cubes. Red Room couldn't have guessed their training would help a little boy win a spaghetti competition, but hey, what good was training if you couldn’t use it in everyday life? They were a great team. Peter was doing it exactly the way Cassie taught him. In the end they were successful, it tasted great. Peter seemed so happy and Natasha was smiling. Who would have guessed the Black Widow was happy while cooking with her little nephew? 

Team 2: Science Bros 

After countless hours spent in the labs together Tony thought he and his science bro could be successful about something as simple as cooking, as it was simply combining ingredients together. Not chemical ingredients, but close enough. Despite their intelligence, they weren't so good at cooking. They decided to do their spaghetti in the oven, boiling it would make it too squishy. While Bruce was grating the tomatoes, Tony was trying to find something which was heat proof. After Bruce finished grating, he cut his hand by mistake. Fortunately Tony was there and they stopped the blood before it could contaminate the area. When they put everything in the ramekin, Tony cracked the eggs but he wasn't so successful. as there were little shell parts that Tony folded under the noodles. Maybe Clint and Thor wouldn't realize.

Team 3: Military Minutemen

After a year living together, Rhodey and Steve had become unlikely friends and they thought this would be a great idea to continue their friendship but like science bros, two soldiers were not talented in the kitchen. They were trying to do the spaghetti with bechamel sauce. They didn't have any problem while doing the spaghetti but the bechamel sauce was difficult. After adding the flour in it they waited a little bit longer than normal and they were about to burn it. But they thought it wouldn't be detectable enough if they added mushrooms, garlic, black pepper and lemon in it. 

\--

After eating all of the spaghettis, Clint and Thor decided Team 1 was the definite winner.

Unfortunately for team 2 Thor and Clint saw the little egg shells and unfortunately for team 3 the taste of the burned flour was perceived. 

After the long competition that apparently took a lot of brains to participate in, everyone was tired other than Thor and Clint. In that moment, Tony realized none of them was the actual winner, but that Thor and Clint were. Despite their mistakes Thor and Clint said all three spaghettis were delicious, that meant those two ate three different kinds of delicious spaghetti and didn’t even have the audacity to share. Luckily for them, Tony was too tired to get angry.


	13. Surprise Birthday Party

“I know you say you’re not a domesticated dad, but I’m pretty sure you’re a meddling mother.” Rhodey said, as Tony was searching up Peter’s classmates. 

“Excuse me?” 

“Why are you looking up Peter’s classmates?” 

“Shhh!” Tony covered Rhodey’s mouth and scanned the room before letting go. “Peter’s birthday, I’m giving him a surprise party.” 

“And when, may I ask, were you planning on telling me?”

“Over a romantic date.”

“Hmmm, I never remembered getting an invite to said date.” 

“That’s because I haven’t planned it yet.” Tony smiled, “or, maybe it’s because it was supposed to be a surprise.”

“No, I can handle surprise birthdays but don’t surprise me. It usually doesn’t end well.”

“You have no faith in me. Now help me out, who do you think we should invite to the party?”

“Nah, I say we plan this date of ours,” Rhodey closed the hologram, and reached over to kiss Tony, who laughed before leaning in for the kiss. At that moment, Tony sensed someone’s presence before seeing Peter covering his eyes. 

“Ewww! Stop it! I don’t deserve to see this!” Peter tried to escape, and instead ran into the wall. “Get a room!” 

“Excuse me young man,” Tony was shocked to hear that come out of Peter’s mouth. “Where did you learn that from?”

“Public school. Movies. TV shows. You guys aren’t exactly conservative.”

“All this sad. It’s like he learned it from someone.” Rhodey deadpanned Tony’s way. 

“Be careful or I won’t give you any kisses tonight.” 

“I don’t need to hear this!” Peter ran out of the room and Tony laughed, making over exaggerated kissing noises. 

—

“Hey pops, Cassie and MJ invited me to a concert. Panic! At the Disco is going to be playing. Can I go?”

“Where is it?”

“Coney Island Beach.”

“I’m fine with it. Tony?” 

“I think Happy should go with you.”

“I’m not seven anymore dad!” Peter argued but then gave in. If anything, he’d watch the teens from a founder but go watch Downton Abbey somewhere. “Okay fine, sure, Happy can go.” 

“Hey Rhodey,” Tony’s eyebrows went up and his voice became sickly sweet. “How about a nice date while Pete’s gone? We could-“

“No! I don’t wanna hear it!” Peter ran from the room for the second time that week. 

“Guess it's just you and me honeybear.” Tony teased. 

—

“Happy, what’s your ETA?” 

“Um, I got the car to break down so now we have to take the ferry. I don’t know, it’s been a long time since I’ve taken the ferry.” 

“That banner needs to be higher! May! I’m so glad you could join us!”

“Did you really think I’d miss Peter’s birthday?”

May Reilly had been Peter’s part time nanny when he was younger, and still kept in correspondence with Tony often. She was likely the most motherly figure in Peter’s life, and he regularly swung by her apartment, and loved a street store Delmar’s near her house. 

“Do you by chance know how to cut a cake properly?” Tony asked, and May looked offended. 

“Of course I know how to do that.” 

“Great. You get to cut the cake. Rhodey! Is the sound system set up?”

“Tony!” Pepper yelled from the other side of the room. Tony excused himself and ran over to her. “I was able to get them to allow fireworks.”

“And do I want to know how you did that?” 

“I gave them hell on a silver platter.” Pepper grinned. “Also, I bought sparklers. Hopefully these kids don’t act like complete idiots and hurt themselves with these.” 

“You’re amazing Pep.” 

“I’m aware.” 

—

“Positions everyone!” Tony gave the signal and all the epitope began to mill around, some wearing hats so Peter wouldn’t recognize them on sight. 

“I am not a baby person!” Peter’s voice drifted over to the guests and Tony gestured to keep hiding. 

“You’re a baby person whether you like it or not.” Ned disagreed. 

“I just made faces at a baby!” Peter argued, but then grinned. “Okay, so it was a cute baby.” 

“SURPRISE!”

Fireworks went off, everyone jumped up in the air and Peter was taken aback with pure astonishment.

“Wait what?” 

“It’s a surprise birthday dork.” Cassie dragged home over to the table. “Cake, people, fireworks?”

Peter started laughing and then looked back at the trio he had come with. “Good job, you guys didn’t have me guessing at all.” 

—

“Happy Birthday to you!” The last lyric rang out and May began cutting the cake. All the teens swarmed her in a mad rush for the food, even though they had been snacking the entire evening. Bottomless pits, that’s what these teens were. 

“Move out! Birthday boy gets cake first!” May yelled, and the group didn’t move but let Peter get to the front. 

“I hope we got enough cake.” Tony whispered to Rhodey, who just grinned. 

“Yeah, like you don’t have a backup cake waiting.”

“No, but I have a small cake ready for us. It’s from the Cheesecake Factory, at home.” Pepper informed, and Rhodey kissed her cheek. 

“Have I mentioned how much I love you?”

“Excuse me?” Tony pretended to act offended. “Pepper! I want a divorce! How dare you Platypus!”

“Hey dad, pops?”

“Yeah Pete?”

“Thanks, you know, for the party.”

Tony wrapped Peter in a hug, likely embarrassing the boy, while Rhodey joined in. “We love you Pete!” They sang off key, and Tony grinned. Truer words had never been spoken.


	14. Spider-Man is Busted

“We want this Spider-Man to join the avengers. Make it happen.” Fury informed, and left no further instructions. 

It was one of the rare meetings Rhodey was able to attend and they had thought it would be a little more pressing than getting a new teammate, but hey, it wasn’t an alien invasion so Tony would take what he could get. 

“What do we know about him?” Bruce asked, quietly writing notes next to Rhodey. 

“I think he’s a college kid.” Clint said, pulling out a newspaper. Tony thought that was kinda old to do, but it was Clint, so he didn’t read into it too much. 

“Why?” 

“He only goes out after 3, and never in the mornings. Also, he pulls all nighters, as he’s told the press. There’s no way that’s not a college kid.” 

“And how would you know that Legolas? You’ve never been to college.”

“Okay, college kid, what do you think?” Clint challenged. 

“Well, logically, it could be any college student, but I hope it’s not a high school student, we can’t rule that out either.” 

“But if it’s a student, he must be pulling lower than a B without the proper time to study.” Steve concluded. 

“Not necessarily. He could be a gifted kid. If so, then he doesn’t need as much time to do such things. Also, have you guys seen his Instagram?”

“No. Does he have anything telling on it?” 

“Other than a sandwich pic, nothing is out of the ordinary.” Thor, who was getting better at technology (and who was obsessed with stalking people through Instagram and other media) informed them. 

“Wait, what’s weird about a sandwich pic?” 

“All his other photos are on rooftops or selfies with fans. It’s also the only pic he has had sponsored.” Natasha pulled up the post. “Delmars sandwich place. He likes his squished down really flat.” 

Tony shot a glance at Rhodey, and it seemed they were thinking the exact same thing. And that was that Peter was going to be busted. 

It took an insane amount of control to keep the meeting going without getting more and more agitated that his son, Peter, was out in a red onesie fighting crime with obnoxious goggles and getting himself hurt on a daily basis, and then posting about sandwiches. 

“What conclusions have you come to?” Fury asked after they had been discussing the matter for ten minutes. 

“Rhodey and I think we know how to rope him in. Give us two days.” 

“You sure?” Fury’s eyebrows went up. 

“Positive.” Rhodey assured him, and Fury seemed at ease, because Rhodey had said it. He never looked at Tony that way. 

“Oh no, they’re doing the creepy marriage thing where they have that telekinesis.” Clint groaned.

—

“Are we like doing a good cop bad cop or like, what?” Tony asked Rhodey when their suits assembled. 

“We’re doing the dad act where our kid is busted.”

“Cool. Lead the way.” 

—

They found Spider-Man, or better yet, Peter, crouched on a rooftop scanning the city. He didn’t seem to have noticed them yet, but with his claimed spider sense, he should’ve. 

“So, Pete, how’s patrol going?” Tony stepped out of the suit and put it on standby as Rhodey did the same, effectively cornering him. And if he tried to swing off the rooftop, they would quickly be able to follow him. 

“Great I’m-Dad?” Peter’s voice became an octave higher and he turned around slowly, knowing he was guilty. 

“Yes Pete?” Tony asked, all too cheerily. 

“I can explain.” 

“I sure hope you can.” Rhodey said, and motioned for Peter to sit down. “So Spider-Man? How did this happen?”

Peter sat silently for a minute and then started, “You guys remember when I got that spider bite? Well, it wasn’t an ordinary spider, I found out it was radioactive. Don’t worry, it’s dead now. But, um, I kinda got some superpowers.” 

He continued. “But not like flight or anything! I can’t stick on walls and stuff, and my senses have improved. I als have a healing factor which um, you didn’t need to know about and yeah, that's about all I can say and not get in trouble.

“Oh you’re in trouble.” Tony assured Peter. “When exactly, were you planning on telling us? 

“Eventually.”

“So you just decided with these powers to go and fight crime in a pair of old Pjs?” Rhodey asked. 

“These aren’t Pjs, this is my Spider-Man suit!” 

“Pete, you know, instead of like, fighting in a pair of pjs, you could’ve asked us, we would’ve made you a better suit.” 

“You would’ve installed a tracker in my tooth if you knew what I was planning on doing.” 

“But why Pete? Why fight crime?”

“Because I wanted to be like you!” Peter finally admitted. Both Tony and Rhodey were taken aback.

“Wait what?” Rhodey asked. 

“I wanted you to be better.” Tony argued before he could stop himself. 

“And how am I supposed to achieve that without being a superhero?” Peter questioned before Tony could process what he had said. 

“What do you mean?” Rhodey just overall looked confused. 

“How am I supposed to be better than you, do anything important, when you guys are superheroes?” Peter questioned. 

“This whole gig isn’t necessary.” Tony finally said, sitting next to Peter. “It’s not that we don’t think you’re good at what you do, but Pete, there’s a world outside and we want you to live it. And being a superhero can limit those opportunities.”

“But I wanna be a hero, just like you guys.”

“And you will be one.” Rhodey finally sat down with them. “But every hero needs guidance, and you’re young Pete. We just wanna keep you safe. Because before Spider-Man or anything, you’re our son.” 

“I know. I’m sorry.” Peter said, and he looked off into the distance. “I suppose I’m grounded?”

“Oh yes you are.” Tony and Rhodey said at the same time. 

“But I’m sure we can use that time to build you a suit.” Tony added, lightly elbowing Peter, who grinned.

“Also, part of your grounding will be telling Nick Fury that you’re Spider-Man, because he wants you on the team.” Rhodey informed, and Peter freaked out. 

“He wants me on the Avengers? Yes! I accept! I whole heartily accept!”

“He hasn’t offered the job yet Pete.” Tony grinned. But he knew Fury soon would. Peter would be a great addition, once he was in actual gear. Besides, Natasha would be livid if anyone touched Peter. The odds of them getting that far were slim to nothing.


	15. Lipsync Battle

In Peter's entire life this was the worst idea he had ever had, at least that was Tony's thoughts. 

Everything started on a Tuesday afternoon. Peter came home after a school day, nothing strange about that. He had spent a lot of time in his lab, Rhodey came and they went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Clint was with his family, Natasha and Steve were on a mission for SHIELD, Thor was in Asgard. Only Bruce was in the tower, but he was preoccupied with his work in the lab, some project he was doing with the help of Helen Cho. So it was only Peter, Rhodey, and Tony in the penthouse.

"Peter, dinner is ready!" Rhodey shouted for Peter, when the microwave blew a fuse. Rhodey cursed, and then started to distribute the food. “Jarvis, order a new microwave.” Rhodey didn’t have a good reputation with microwaves, and he abhorred them to the point that the only time he used it was to heat up butter. But now, the butter was still cold and the microwave was broken. 

"Okay pops, I'm coming." Peter had been in his room, doing “homework,” but Tony was pretty sure that Peter was texting more than studying. 

After all of them sat down and started eating, Tony decided to break the silence, as he could not handle it. "How was your day Pete?" 

"It was okay, Mr. Harrington wasn't at school today. This is the only lesson Cassie, MJ, Ned and I are together so we were lucky." Peter grinned, but tried to hide it, grabbing the interest of Tony. 

"Oh, what did you do?" Rhodey asked, looking at Peter suspiciously. 

"We played truth or dare. In a round so chose dare and MJ dared me to be part of a Lip Sync Battle." 

"And you said no I hope.” 

"I said yes." 

"What!?" Tony spit out his chowder, and Rhodey grabbed a napkin. 

"Peter, are you sure?" Rhodey asked.

"I think so…"

"You know all of the Avengers will be there, right, we promised to watch it for a fundraiser." Tony asked with a hope this may stop his son. 

"I have accepted my fate." Peter dramatically dropped his head on the table. “Do you know what would happen to me if I backed out now? MJ would never let me live it down.”

\--

When the day came, all of the Avengers were there waiting for Peter's performance, sitting with Peter's friends. Nick Fury had come with the persuasion of Natasha, and he had come when she guilted him with the children of the fundraiser. “You wouldn’t want to disappoint the children, would you Nick?”

When Peter started, Tony thought it was cute. Singing in the rain, that was one of his favorite musicals. He was wrong. It didn't take long till Peter's real performance began. When Peter got on the stage with a wig and Rihanna costume everyone was shocked, and by shocked, they meant flabbergasted. Tony and Rhodey looked at each other, their eyes saying “this is your child,” They were both speechless. There was no talk or any voice other than the song Peter was dancing along to.

Granted, Tony had to hand it to Peter that his dancing skills were good. Peter had gone to a dance course a few years ago, but neither Rhodey nor Tony knew he was that good. 

The only person who was not shocked was Natasha, of course. She probably knew Peter was an amazing dancer. Natasha had vaguely mentioned dancing when she was younger and Tony had caught her dancing a few times, to which he was sworn into secrecy. 

It was obvious that Steve didn't understand anything, and it was shocking that Peter was wearing such an outfit. Clint was laughing so hard he hit his head on Steve’s shoulder, so now he was holding his head while laughing so hard he fell out of his chair. As for Bruce, he was shocked. 

When Tony looked at the god of thunder, Thor was looking at Peter amazed and in awe. It seemed like they were going to come there once more, this time to watch Thor's performance.

"This is our son, right?" Rhodey whispered to Tony's ear. It was so hard to identify Peter in that amount of makeup. 

"Yes honeybear, I believe he is." 

"I didn't know he was able to dance like that." 

"Neither did I." Both of them were not looking at each other, they were looking at their son even when they were talking with each other. 

“I’m kinda concerned where he learned some of those moves.”

“Do we want to know or plead stupid?”  
“Plead stupid.” Rhodey quickly decided, and Tony nodded. 

\--

That night, Peter’s performance was all over the internet, and Tony received numerous dad shaming posts along with some other posts which praised him for letting his son be an “individual.”

“I cannot believe you did that.” 

“Will a ten o’clock interview on TODAY prove it to you?” Peter asked, “Because apparently they want us tomorrow.”

“What did you get us into Peter?” Rhodey shook his head fondly. Tony smiled. This was going to end terribly. At least this time he wasn’t the one in the hot seat.


	16. First Date

“Hey pops?” Peter asked at the dinner table, picking nervously at his noodles. They were having a private dinner (the rest of the team was in Ankara, at a press conference) and they were eating Chinese food takeout. 

“Yeah Peter?” Rhodey hummed. 

“How do I ask someone out on a date?” 

That had not been the question Tony to Rhodey had been expecting, and they looked at each other confused before Rhodey spoke again. 

“And who exactly would you be asking?” 

“Cassie.” Peter admitted. 

“Uh, gee, um, I don’t know. Your dad asked me out by a science pun, and he didn’t even realize he had at the time.” Rhodey sounded flustered. 

“Take her rock climbing, take a walk on a trail, do something fun so that even if it doesn’t turn out the way you thought, you’ll still be friends and it won’t be awkward.” Tony advised, and Rhodey looked surprised. “What?”

“The first thing you suggested to me was to eat fries at McDonald’s. You didn’t have any of these bright ideas back then?”

“I have matured Rhodey.” 

—

“I have decided where to take Cassie.” Peter announced the next day, when he got a moment alone with his dads. “I’m taking her kayaking.” 

“That’s cool. Did she say yes?” 

“I haven’t asked yet.” 

“Do you have kayaks?” Rhodey, ever the logical one asked.

“Uh, that’s why I’m here. Can I have some money?”

Tony immediately got up and got his wallet from his jacket, and passéd Peter three paper bills. 

“I don’t need three hundred dollars dad.”

“You might, so just take it.” Tony refused to take the money back. “So now, who are you going to ask Cassie out?” 

“In all honesty? I was gonna stumble through my invite until she got the point.” 

Tony turned to Rhodey and nodded, before pulling Peter into the kitchen. 

“Okay, first, when you ask her, you should wear something nice. Get her something small, maybe flowers? A stuffed animal?”

“I can do that.”

“Shoulders straight, head up, big smile, that show you get your girl.” Rhodey winked. 

“Are you ready to hear the only instructions you’ll ever need?” 

“Yeah.”

“Okay, here we go.”

“Be a man  
You must be swift as the coursing river  
Be a man  
With all the force of a great typhoon  
Be a man  
With all the strength of a raging fire  
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon!!” Tony and Rhodey sang, using their fists as microphones. 

“You guys are awful!” Peter pushed them away but laughed as he went down the hall. 

—

Tony and Rhodey were just about to go to bed when Peter barged into their room. 

“Guess what? I’ve been waiting all day to tell you. I asked Cassie out. She said yes. We’re going kayaking!”

“I’m happy to hear that!” 

“Our boy’s all grown up!” 

“Guys!” Peter blushed. 

“Don’t worry, we won’t tell everyone else,” Tony grinned. “At a price.”

“Oh no.” Peter groaned, “what?”

“You have to tell us how it went.” Rhodey finished. 

“Really? I thought that was gonna be worse. Okay, yeah sure.” 

—

Peter slid into the room again three days later, looking sweaty and stressed. “What do I wear on a date?”

“It’s kayaking. Nice shorts, a shirt, sandals?”

“I’ll help you. Rhodey doesn’t have my sense of style.” Peter led Tony back to his closet, and they did end up following Rhodey’s advice, but they picked a nice pair of army green shorts, a tshirt, and a pair of flip flops. Peter had been on the end about eh shoes, but Tony promised him that Cassie wouldn’t even see them. 

“Okay, how does this look?” Peter spin around once, and Tony whistled his approval.

“What’s cooking? Cause you’re good lookin’”

“Oh my god dad never say that again!” Peter yelled and grabbed his wallet. “I’m going to go now.” 

“Not without saying goodbye I hope.” Rhodey said from the doorway. Peter sighed. 

“Goodbye dad. Love you pops.” 

Once Peter had left Tony flopped on the bed. “He’s growing up so fast.” 

“Like a weed.” Rhodey affirmed. 

“Sometimes I wish time could stop and we could just stay right here.” 

“But if time stopped, I’d never get to live a thousand years with you.” Rhodey murmured, and Tony smiled. 

“You’re right. I wouldn’t trade this for all the world.”


	17. Graduation

It was an entirely bittersweet moment the time Peter had come to Tony, handing him an envelope, explaining that he needed him to pay the money for his cap and gown. 

Tony has started at the small paper for almost an hour, as if it was going to hurt him, poison him if he were to touch it. How could this be happening? Just a year ago Peter was knowing at his fist with his chubby little baby cheeks that he had. Where had the time gone?

“What are you staring at?” Rhodey asked when he came back from work. Tony hadn’t even realized he had gotten back. 

“It’s-um, it’s for me to pay for Peter’s cap and gown.” Tony finally was able to answer. 

“Wow.” Rhodey whistled before sitting down next to Tony. “I can’t believe it’s almost graduation.”

“Yesterday he was just walking.”

“The time has flown by.” Rhodey agreed, and grabbed a pen. “Do you want me to write out the check?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Tony said, almost robotically. 

—

In spite of his disbelief, the days went by quicker than Tony would’ve liked, and he spent his current day planning a graduation party with Scott Lang, Ned’s parents, and MJ’s parents. 

It was going to be big, at Avengers Compound, where the pool was going to be open, a huge bbq would take place, and fireworks, because of course. Tony was also planning on writing “HAPPY GRADUATION” in the sky. He still had to talk to Rhodey about that one though. 

“Sir I have put up a list of supplies we will need for the party.”

“Thanks J. Um, send it to Rhodey. And get him on the phone.”

—

“What are we getting Pete for a graduation present?”

Tony could tell Rhodey hadn’t even thought of that, and he sighed. 

“What can we give him? We’ve given him a car already, Spider-Man suits are kinda not a graduation present, and like, I don’t know.” Tony mumbled. 

“We could activate Karen.” Rhodey mused. 

“Karen? But she’s not even halfway ready, I mean, her programming is all done, but she has so much to learn!”

“But the only way she can learn is with Peter. That’s how Jarvis learned.”

“Looks like we’ll be pulling a few all nighters then Rhodey, I have her coding down but she’s still too young.”

“Wouldn’t be the first child we’ve raised.” Rhodey glanced at DUM-E.

—

During their late night spent working on Karen’s code, Tony and Rhodey reflected. 

“You know, I can’t believe we’re here. Like, the first time you went on a date with me I thought I was hallucinating.”

“I mean, you were kinda drunk the night before, so…” Rhodey smiled. “I get what you mean, I’m honestly amazed Peter hasn’t run away due to our questionable parenting skills.”

“If only Howard could see me now.” Tony looked into the distance and then shrugged. “He’d probably tell me I could do better.”

“And you know what I would tell him?” Rhodey defensively said, “I would tell that despite him fucking up your childhood, you became a better father than him and he should be proud of you.” 

“You’re always my knight in shining armor.” Tony responded dryly. 

“You can call me War Machine. James Rhodes, Tony Stark’s husband and protector.” Rhodey kissed Tony’s head.

\--

Tony and Rhodey sat in the third row of the crowd. Jarvis was recording the entire thing, so neither of them were worried like other parents to get a good angle while their child was walking down to get their diploma. 

Right now, they were going through the student body by alphabet, and they were only on F. Peter, who was technically known as Peter Rhodes (Tony and Rhodey had an argument about it early on) so that meant that it would be a very long wait. Tony leaned on Rhodey’s shoulder. 

“Wake me up when they get to the R’s” he mumbled, and closed his eyes. Rhodey elbowed him. 

“Sit up.” Rhodey whispered, and shook Tony off his arm. 

“Ugh.” 

—

“Peter Rhodes.” The principal read, and Tony turned to see his son walking proudly down the aisle to get his diploma. 

Tony squeezed Rhodey’s arm and watched as Peter got his folder (which didn’t actually have a diploma in it, much to Tony’s frustration.)

“And now, our salutatorian will say a few words.” 

“Hello everyone.” Peter hesitantly started. “I’m so thankful to be up standing here today, and I’d like to thank my dad and pops, as they have supported me every step of this journey. Every dream I’ve ever had they helped make possible and I would like for them to stand up.” 

Tony and Rhodey were surprised but stood up anyway. Peter ran down from the podium and gathered them in a group hug. “Thank you.” The boy whispered, and Tony could feel the tears cascading down his face. 

“We love you 3000.”


	18. MIT

“Are you sure you want to stay at Simmon’s?” Tony asked Peter for what he knew to be the fiftieth time. “Your dad and I both were Next house kids.”

“No, I want to be at Simmons. Hurry up old man, I want to meet my roommate.”

“Rhodey! He thinks I’m old!” Tony yelled down the stairs, where Rhodey was bringing up one of Peter’s suitcases. 

“You’re on the wrong side of forty, so yeah, you’re kinda old.” Rhodey pointed out. 

“And you’re older than me.” 

“Yes, a whole whopping three years. What does that make me, 52? We both know that I age very well.”

“I can’t disagree,” Tony went over to kiss Rhodey’s cheek, mainly to embarrass Peter, but was stopped by Peter’s fake choking. 

“Seriously guys! Cut it out!”

\--

By the time Tony had gotten up the stairs Peter was already being greeted by a group of girls. Tony grinned, completely planning on using this new material as blackmail. Granted, he had to kinda expect it. According to Peter, in the beginning of his highschool years nobody liked him in the dating sense. Neither Tony or Rhodey believed that. (like, just look at Peter, how could someone not like him?) 

But Tony was sure Peter would take one look at the girls and never think about them again. And right now, if Tony knew Peter, which he did, Peter was most likely going to politely get around them and then hide from then until he had no choice not to. 

When Peter had finally gotten the group of girls away from him, he turned around. Tony met his eyes with a gleam. Peter shook his head, as if to convey to Tony, don’t you dare dad. 

\--

“Hey, is this the room my son is in?” Tony pushed open door 616 and closed his eyes, in case he had the wrong room. He was once a college student, he was aware of what went on in the dorm rooms when no one was watching. 

“Hey! You’re Peter’s dad! Nice to meet you Mr. Stark.”

“Nice to meet you. You must be Teddy.” 

“Um, yeah, that’s me, Teddy Altman. You know me?” The boy seemed shocked that Tony had shaken his hand and even more surprised that Tony was talking to him.

“Yeah, Peter has told me about you. By the way, going into aerodynamics? My husband has already adopted you and you can come to our place whenever you need to.” 

“Dad!” Peter yelled, embarrassed. 

“What?”

\--

Even though MIT was not far from home at all, Tony felt like he was losing part of himself when he said goodbye to Peter. Everything was set up, Peter’s bed neatly made, the dorm stocked with food and school supplies, and there wasn’t a reason for Tony and Rhodey to stay, they lingered for longer than most parents. 

Tony stood still and watched as Rhodey pulled Peter into an embrace. We are going to go now but you know that we are only a call away. If you ever need anything, even though it’s the middle of the night even if it’s four hours away, we will come as soon as we physically can.” 

“I know pops.”

Rhodey looked close to tears and held Peter longer still. “I love you Pete, so much, and we’re so proud of what you’re becoming.” 

By this time, Peter’s eyes were glimmering with unshed tears and Peter turned to Tony. 

What was Tony supposed to say? All the words were caught in his throat. Every single thing he could say didn’t seem like enough. But, he supposed, it would have to be. “Pete,” Tony pulled Peter into a bear hug. “You changed our lives.” Tony held back a sob. “Now go and change other people’s lives.”

Tony felt strong arms envelop his hold on Peter, and knew that Rhodey had joined in on the hug. “We love you Pete, we love you 3000.”

Letting go of that hug was the hardest thing Tony had ever done, but walking away, seeing how every step away from Peter made him smaller was more scary than any mission, any wormhole and everything he had ever faced. That was his boy, and things wouldn’t be the same.  
“It’s gonna be so different.” Tony managed to say when they got in the car, without Peter sitting in the backseat. 

“I know. But we’re gonna do it. Just like everything else, together.” Rhodey assured him, and Tony smiled. Rhodey, the calm in the storm, was always going to be his rock, and that was more than Tony could ever want.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This was written for Rhodey appreciation week 2020, and was written in the span of five days (and with school, it was a lot to write). So please excuse any typos, as some of these were written late at night by one of us whose first language is not English, and one who is doing it on her phone under her covers because she shares a room. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are love!


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